First days of spring -- the sky
by RyokanEnglish version by Stephen Mitchell
Original Language Japanese
First days of spring -- the sky
is bright blue, the sun huge and warm.
Everything's turning green.
Carrying my monk's bowl, I walk to the village
to beg for my daily meal.
The children spot me at the temple gate
and happily crowd around,
dragging to my arms till I stop.
I put my bowl on a white rock,
hang my bag on a branch.
First we braid grasses and play tug-of-war,
then we take turns singing and keeping a kick-ball in the air:
I kick the ball and they sing, they kick and I sing.
Time is forgotten, the hours fly.
People passing by point at me and laugh:
"Why are you acting like such a fool?"
I nod my head and don't answer.
I could say something, but why?
Do you want to know what's in my heart?
From the beginning of time: just this! just this!
 | -- from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell |
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/ Image by laruenatclemson /
A day with blue sky, warm sun, when "everything's turning green."
This poem evokes the simple joy of a game played with children, a joy so immediate that it leads the awareness to that timeless, nondual state of the eternal present. It is that sense, felt particularly in the space of the heart, that time can be traced all the way to its beginning... and that beginning is found right here.
